It is amazing how God provides for us in our every moment. Hopefully we realize that without God we do not exist. All that is good in our daily lives is gift from God. So we are spiritually wise to thank God many times for God’s generosity and abundance to us.

The annual Catholic Services Appeal (CSA) provides us with a loving format for thanking God by generously sharing our treasure which belongs to God. Being stewards of God’s generosity is our call of discipleship in Christ. The more thankful we are to God, the more generous we will be with our prayer, time/talent and treasure. Thankfulness to God enlarges our generosity capacity. We will be more at peace with sacrificial generosity rather than surplus generosity.

I ask you to join me again or perhaps for the first time to make a generous, sacrificial pledge to the 2015 CSA. Together, we along with all the parishes in our Diocese of Gary bring hope to the many thousands of people making up our Catholic Church in Northwest Indiana. CSA brings hope-filled support to the future training/formation for our Seminarians as they prepare for priesthood ordination. Also, retired priests and sisters are helped out thanks to CSA. Training for Catechists in Religious Education is supplemented by CSA. Much charitable outreach is provided to the needy thanks to CSA increasing the resources for Catholic Charities/Family Services. And CSA covers 7 National/International special collections that would otherwise be taken up throughout the year.

Specifically, I ask you to match my $1700.00 pledge to the 2015 CSA. Please give more if this is God’s Will for you. But please make the sacrifice to make a generous pledge which I trust is God’s Will for all of us.

Our Parish goal for the 2015 CSA is $26,093.00. My prayer is that together we as parish will far exceed our parish goal so that we will receive a large rebate which will be used to pay off our Sunday Treasure envelope deficit.

Our depth of thankfulness to God for God providing for us in our every moment necessarily means we must share with depth of generosity. Thankfulness to God and our resulting generosity are two inseparable awarenesses. Please join me in being sacrificially generous to the 2015 CSA.

Pledges will be taken until May 17, 2015. Please remember that we have until the end of January 2016 to fulfill the payment of our CSA pledge.